26 replies to this topic

[Sam Slade]

Cannot stress this enough; if MWO is going to work as a MMO game then it MUST have system settings that allow low to mid spec computers to run it(this includes laptops). You all know the available options; draw distance, terrain/mech detail, weapon effects, etc...

Just make sure the 20-something guy who only has a laptop because he lives in a share house or moves around a bit can play... these are the guys that played the Mechwarrior series on mum and dads PC at home... now they have disposable income.

[Pht]

I suspect the requirements are going to be fairly open and not too high.

They're supporting DX9... which is why I suspect this. They're probably going for the largest crowd possible.

[Hellgardia]

It should support a wide range of systems. From DX9 for lower specced configs to DX11 packed with many features for more "uber" configs.
If the requirements were too high it could take a toll on the player base.

[Xhaleon]

You know, I wouldn't mind if they just made some very low poly mechs and terrain models for a very low graphics setting. If they're going to be anywhere as detailed as the concept art and the original trailer, that's going to be a drain on people's old laptops (like mine). Oh, and common particle effects such as dust would definitely need tweak options.

Ha, with low poly model replacements, it'd be just like playing MW2 again.

[Cake Bandit]

Personal note: I'd sooner sacrifice model and texture detail and maybe even completely lose out on shaders rather than take a hit to draw-distance.

[Barbaric Soul]

upgrade your computers people.


Personally, I want this game to make my current computer scream in pain when I turn all the details up, and while I may still be on socket775, my computer isn't slow by any means. My specs are-

Processor: C2Q Q9650 OC'ed to 4050mhz@1.328 volts
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
Cooling: Gigabyte G-power 2 Pro cooler
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 4gigs DDR2 clocked at 900/5.5.5.15
Video Card: 2* XFX 5870 in Crossfire
Hard Disk: 500gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
LCD Model: SOYO TOPAZ S 24" 1920*1200
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 860
Software: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Benchmarks: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/1813720

[Silent]

If they are using the Unreal engine we should be in pretty good shape, as that engine tends to scale fairly well graphically.

[Jonas Walker]

Barbaric Soul, on 13 November 2011 - 05:52 AM, said:

upgrade your computers people. -irrelevent snip-

Some people can't afford to drop the money for a new high end rig or desire to when merely turning down a few settings* or accepting certain limitations** allows hardware a year or two 'outdated' to run things perfectly fine. If you can afford the bleeding edge thats great but there's many others out there who are happy to settle for a bit less performance in exchange for a much cheaper cost. Of course its easy to say that someone else should do X because "its easy" but its rarely that simple in practice.

*The trend of huge max screen resolutions on 30"+ monitors driving high end video card sales being a prime example.
**Less then 60 FPS when your eyes can only process a fraction of that anyway.

Edited by Jonas Walker, 13 November 2011 - 08:25 AM.

[omegaclawe]

Considering physics and wot will be done on-server, it'll probably be mostly graphics in the requirements. Personally, I don't see many things older than a 7800GT being supported (as is the current trend), but less powerful things, sure. That said, if you aren't on a laptop, a graphics card good enough to run the game can cost you less than the $60 price tag many thought the game would come with in the first place... provided you shop smart (e.g. Newegg).

Laptops, on the other hand... well, there's a reason they aren't supported by most things. Even some current integrated cards have less muscle than the previous console generation (gamecube/PS2/Xbox).

On the other side of things, they should also totally make settings so the game can use up a lot of a higher-end card. I'd like for the game to be able to make good use of my GTX460 1GB... I can still run most brand-new games at maxed settings at 60+ fps. :/

[GreenHell]

I run a gaming laptop with twin 9800m GT cards in SLI. 512Mb each. I hate how most games support the 9800 GT, but not my 9800m GT...

The most important thing to me right now is that the game runs solid. Even though I hate to say it, my old dx10 cards have trouble with new games because they aren't optimized for my cards... It's sad you know? I ran Crysis on 1 level below Full, and it was AMAZING! But now, when I play Heroes of Might and Magic 6, the game lags bad on every resolution, and the mouse flickers like crazy.

So I think it's a matter of support and optimization. Please let my 9800m GT cards be supported. They are great cards! I've had a lot of fun with them, but I can't replace them...

Edited by GreenHell, 13 November 2011 - 02:53 PM.

[Sam Slade]

Well, to be blunt, most people prefer laptops. They are convienient and easy to service(i.e.: give to tech guy, leave, come back later, fixed). Add the Mac Attack factor to that and you have a situation when running the game on the Macbook that little Johny got for his birthday should be part of the business model.

Remember, we came from a PC generation where 'yank out that **** card and shove in the new one' was par for the course. Many younger computer owners are of the 'downloadable solution' ilk. They do not open the machine because there's a little sticker that says they loose the 3 year warrenty that most people pay to have. A new card is cheap now because people are scared to open the box and see where they go.

Bottom line is accessibility equals customers. If the game runs too slow and it's a pain in the *** to fix then many will uninstall and move to the next MMO.

[genka]

omegaclawe, on 13 November 2011 - 02:33 PM, said:

Considering physics and wot will be done on-server...

I sincerely hope that this is speculation on your part, but in case it's not, I would appreciate it if you would point me in the direction of a dev statement to that effect. Thanks.

[CeeKay Boques]

I know money doesn't grow on trees, but please save up a for core processor or video card, don't handicap the game because you can't get the scratch right now. Maybe they can scale to 800x600.

[Sam Slade]

genka, on 13 November 2011 - 03:17 PM, said:

I sincerely hope that this is speculation on your part, but in case it's not, I would appreciate it if you would point me in the direction of a dev statement to that effect. Thanks.

Makes sense; best way to avoid player made haks, bots and the like.

technoviking, on 13 November 2011 - 05:04 PM, said:

I know money doesn't grow on trees, but please save up a for core processor or video card, don't handicap the game because you can't get the scratch right now. Maybe they can scale to 800x600.

You're missing the point; for many moving to PC gaming is a step made from console gaming now. They see the game and expect it to work on their machine. If it doesn't work then the game is broken because their machine can play other games fine. Cue next game.

[Redtail]

Barbaric Soul, on 13 November 2011 - 05:52 AM, said:

upgrade your computers people.

I, like many others in this day and age, am suffering from limited employment. I had to move back home because my fancy new diploma in psychology doesn't actually mean anything anymore, and take my old job at Menard's. At first, it was merely "slightly depressing" because my generous parents were allowing me to pay rent in home renovation. Now, with the housing/industrial situation, my scheduled 36 hours a week really only means I'm working 18-20 hours. A second job would be nice, yes, but it didn't become a problem until *after* the seasonal rush had already filled up essentially all local employment.

THe result of this is that I've had to get very creative in order to continue to make my student loan payments the last two months.

I'm not gonna lie, I was only a *little* disappointed when I found out that MechWarrior was going to be free to play, because while it meant no huge cinematic single-player game, this meant that it was no longer going to be an irresponsible and illogical decision for me to play it, given that it's free, and during the hours of the day I'm not either working, prowling for odd-jobs or annoying the managers of every local retail establishment to see if they're starting to hire instead of cut-back, I could spend time that would otherwise be spent moping around the house because nothing is open, getting back in touch with a much happier part of my life.

Needless to say, the laptop that I needed help buying as a graduation present about 4 years ago is not cutting edge. A laptop was necessary for me with frequent travel between home and college. It's equipped with an Intel GMA X4500, I don't need to say any more.
I feel it's unnecessary to say this, but "Upgrade your computer" are the words of an utterly insensitive buffoon who either cannot or will not see, or simply doesn't care, that there are no small number of people whose circumstances between the announcement of Mechwarrior 3015 and now have been on a downhill slope.



TL;DR
Have some sympathy. *Most* people can't just drop near a grand to arbitrarily upgrade their hardware, when they were told what to expect and could safely meet the minimum to begin with. This is especially true in this economy.
ANd if you can, for the sake of a free-to-play online game, you should re-examine your priorities.

[omegaclawe]

genka, on 13 November 2011 - 03:17 PM, said:

I sincerely hope that this is speculation on your part, but in case it's not, I would appreciate it if you would point me in the direction of a dev statement to that effect. Thanks.

The dev's don't need to say anything. So long as a server is required, physics and similar calculations -must- be done on the server, since it needs to propagate to all the clients. Occasionally, games do offset some collision detection and movement to the client, but given how easily hackable this becomes (teleport/wallhacks), this practice is immensely rare. Offsetting calculations of any sort to clients also creates massive lag issues for everyone else in the game. Believe me; this'll be server side. Perhaps you'll have clientside prediction of physics, but the server will say what happens.

---

Edit: Also, sometimes, yes, you do need to upgrade your hardware. Don't have the scratch now? Tough poo. Save up and get it, if it's that important to you. We would like to be able to have a game that's more advanced than MW4, and requiring a semi-modern PC isn't really a detriment to that... they won't lose many customers for it, anyway.

On the other hand, requiring Crysis-like minimum specs would be a terrible design decision, since most of the audience will be running on mid-range hardware, at best.

I would strike the balance at supporting integrated chips made in the last 2-3 years, and discrete cards made in the last 4-5 years, but I wouldn't be happy if the game was hamstrung to support someone who bought the cheapest wal-mart laptop available a few years ago.

Edited by omegaclawe, 13 November 2011 - 08:16 PM.

[genka]

omegaclawe, on 13 November 2011 - 08:11 PM, said:

The dev's don't need to say anything. So long as a server is required, physics and similar calculations -must- be done on the server, since it needs to propagate to all the clients. Occasionally, games do offset some collision detection and movement to the client, but given how easily hackable this becomes (teleport/wallhacks), this practice is immensely rare. Offsetting calculations of any sort to clients also creates massive lag issues for everyone else in the game. Believe me; this'll be server side. Perhaps you'll have clientside prediction of physics, but the server will say what happens.

lol

[CeeKay Boques]

Sam Slade, on 13 November 2011 - 06:34 PM, said:

You're missing the point; for many moving to PC gaming is a step made from console gaming now. They see the game and expect it to work on their machine. If it doesn't work then the game is broken because their machine can play other games fine. Cue next game.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. We'll lose the "Greatest Grafix ever!!!!! I need Crysis 3 and BF4 and Skyrim 2 to rock my machine!!" crowd If it looks like MW4, or even mechassault. Both of us are speculating, but if they go "cartoony" or "cell shading" to make it work on low end systems, you'll lose people too. But my BIGGER worry than graphics is that CPU centric things won't be modeled to accomodate low end processors. (Some say server side, that's a good fix, I suppose...) I'm pretty sure the Dev's have their threshold, and actually, barring an expensive video card, most $300 systems (plus $200 VC) are enough to get most of todays games done.

[Frantic Pryde]

Personally I'm going to buy a new computer to play this game. ATM I have a 10yo xp machine that I rarely use. It would be great if I can tweak that machine a bit to play the game also... Then maybe I can't get my wife to play with me and I can play more >

[MaddMaxx]

Allowing low end Specs is great. It also comes with inherent issues that can be hard to get past when the game launches everyone in a match. Server side processing is wonderful but cannot get little Jimmy to turn down his graphic settings despite that fact he does not have the bandwidth to do that. Everyone suffers.

No one should be excluded and I was near tearing up with that heart felt story above, as I understand it, but that tale works both ways. The Dev will have to decide and then when we all play, the Community will either politely tell little Jimmy what his settings are doing to everyone else or Black List him and either way a customer will be lost.

Best thing the Community can do is educate and put the Black Lists away. The Game needs players and players need other players, otherwise we could all find ourselves killing our own little tight knit group of buddies (as no one is left but them) and not killing a MW universe full of enemies that we want to conquer.

Edited by MaddMaxx, 14 November 2011 - 12:40 PM.